ICNC Summer Institute at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Kicking off FSI 2015: Introducing the Blogging team

Tonight we gather with 46 participants from 36 countries at the opening dinner of the 2015 Fletcher Summer Institute. This year marks the 10th annual FSI… a special occasion indeed! As this is the inaugural entry of the FSI 2015 blog, we would like to extend the opportunity to our readers to meet the ICNC team who will be posting daily to provide a glimpse of the coming week’s events and lectures. Our hope is to provide a useful (and fun) resource for those of you who could not join us for the institute. So without further ado… Meet the team!

Nicola (@lightbugs) joined ICNC in 2008 and currently works as Senior Advisor of Civic Initiatives. Nicola launched ICNC’s People Power iPhone app and more recently the Civil Resistance Learning Initiatives Network (LIN), a program that supports independent civil resistance educational activities around the world, and which she continues to manage in her capacity as Senior Advisor. Nicola also spearheads ICNC’s effort to foster the growing and vibrant FSI Alumni community and provides strategic support for ICNC’s translation program. Currently based in Paris, France, she is working to build strategic relationships with human rights groups and key European institutions and organizations, especially in the francophone world.

Althea (@altheamd) is Senior Advisor for Education and Field Learning at ICNC, where she has worked on core programmatic and educational initiatives for almost 10 years. She is an experienced facilitator, trainer and curriculum designer, and has worked internationally and domestically in this capacity with a number of civil society groups and nonprofit organizations. As a member of the ICNC team, Althea is engaged in co-leading the LIN, contributing to FSI, fostering the growth of ICNC’s vibrant FSI Alumni network and conducting research on human rights, civil resistance and corporate behavior. Katherine literally just joined ICNC (June 1) as Associate Director of Field Initiatives. She oversees ICNC programs and educational initiatives for organizers and activists around the world and in the United States. Her work focuses on workshops on civil resistance, research and development of educational resources for practitioners, information dissemination, and building partnerships with other organizations and institutions related to these initiatives. Katherine, whose work has focused on the Middle East, was Executive Director of Peace Brigades International-USA (PBI) from 2008-2014, working closely with PBI’s field teams and human rights defenders, organizations, and communities in regions of conflict in Latin America, Asia, and Africa where PBI provides “protective accompaniment.”

Maciej (@macbartkowsi) is Senior Director for Education and Research at ICNC where he works on academic programs, curricular development and research in the field of civil resistance studies. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. He is the editor of Recovering Nonviolent History. Civil Resistance in Liberation Struggles and Nation-Making published by Lynne Rienner in 2013. He has authored and coauthored chapters in Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback? (2015) and a critical policy issue study Nonviolent Civilian Defense to Counter Russian Hybrid Warfare (March 2015). Amber (@amberlfrench) joined ICNC in March 2014 as Coordinator of Editorial Activities. She serves as a liaison between academics, activists, journalists and other practitioners doing high-impact work in the field of civil resistance around the world. She builds on constituencies’ vast knowledge of and engagement in civil resistance to produce, publish and disseminate a variety of editorial content. She is co-editor of ICNC’s Civil Resistance page on openDemocracy.net, and also manages the development of a new ICNC blog, the establishment of ICNC’s self-publishing operations, and the development of a new organizational logo and other graphic design work.

Matt (@mmulberry) is an independent journalist and Program Advisor on Editorial and Media Initiatives at ICNC. For the last several years Matt has been writing, editing and producing articles, videos and independent research on various nonviolent campaigns and movements around the world. Matt is also currently working with ICNC to develop a program aimed at helping independent and/or citizen journalists produce effective coverage on nonviolent campaigns and movements taking place in their own communities and around the world.

Jeff has worked as Editorial Intern at ICNC since December 2014. He assists with the twice-weekly publishing of the News Digest on Nonviolent Conflict, and is currently a Master’s candidate at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Prior to beginning his graduate studies, Jeff served five years as an Airborne Infantryman in the US Army, serving 12 months in Iraq and 18 months in South Korea. During his studies, Jeff worked with an independent English-language newspaper in Kigali, Rwanda that was facing an extensive crackdown due to their anti-government message. ** We all work on many initiatives that support ICNC’s educational and research mission, but the members of this team are particularly passionate about the potential ICTs bring to the field of knowledge transfer and civil resistance. You can find more information about ICNC and its staff members here.